Telegram set to lead TON network and become its largest validator

Telegram is set to become the dominant force behind The Open Network ($TON). CEO Pavel Durov said Monday that the messaging platform is replacing the $TON Foundation and stepping in as $TON’s largest validator.

Fees in $TON have dropped 6× — to nearly zero.

Next step — Telegram replaces the $TON Foundation as the driving force behind $TON and becomes its largest validator.

The focus shifts to tech superiority.

New https://t.co/Me0w683UiK, new dev tools, new performance upgrades.…

— Pavel Durov (@durov) May 4, 2026

Telegram originally launched $TON, previously known as Telegram Open Network, in 2018 under Durov and Nikolai Durov but halted the effort in 2020 amid regulatory scrutiny from the US Securities and Exchange Commission tied to its ICO.

The community later established The Open Network Foundation to continue development independently, and Telegram later re-engaged through partnerships. In January 2025, $TON was named the exclusive blockchain for Telegram’s Mini App ecosystem.

Fee cuts and faster blocks

Transaction fees on $TON have been cut by about six times, falling from roughly $0.0023 to around $0.0005 per transaction. The reduction is part of a broader technical roadmap dubbed MTONGA, or “Make $TON Great Again,” according to Durov.

Earlier in April, the network deployed Catchain 2.0, a revamped consensus mechanism that shrank block times from 2.5 seconds to 400 milliseconds, a tenfold improvement.

The result is sub-second transaction finality. For a blockchain that wants to power in-app purchases and peer-to-peer transfers inside Telegram’s Mini Apps, that kind of speed is a baseline requirement.

The $TON blockchain just got upgraded and is now 10× faster.

Block rate increased 6×.

Transactions are now instant, subsecond.

This was step 1 of 7 to Make $TON Great Again (MTONGA).

Next step: cut the already low transaction fees by 6×.

— Pavel Durov (@durov) April 9, 2026

Toncoin, the network’s native coin, advanced 6% in response to the news. The crypto asset was trading at $1.43 at press time.